


Sidney in pain

by AmandaBecker



Series: What if? [7]
Category: Sanditon (TV 2019), Sanditon - Jane Austen
Genre: F/M, Pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-13 05:14:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21488926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmandaBecker/pseuds/AmandaBecker
Summary: What if....Sidney had pain in front of Charlotte?How would she react?
Relationships: Charlotte Heywood & Sidney Parker, Charlotte Heywood/Sidney Parker
Series: What if? [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1544161
Comments: 16
Kudos: 93





	1. important things to do

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for your comments and kudos,  
here is the first of more dramatic one shots...
> 
> hope you like it too.

„Good day,“ Sydney said and turned to go to the Hotel as he remembered his coat was still at Trafalgar House. As he turned again and went there, he suddenly stopped and held his side. Pain.

Charlotte was still in the hallway watching Mr Stringer talk to his father. She turned when she heard Sidney come in. She smiled at him, but it faded immediately. He looked... like plagued with pain. He breathed quickly and nodded into the room where she stood at the door. 

"My coat..." he explained.  
"I'm afraid it's full of blood," she said to him with a calm voice, so as not to disturb the men inside.  
"Yes, of course, I will... ah." he said with a furrowed face and turned to the stairs when the pain was back. Stronger than ever, and he bent.  
"Ahh,“ he was holding on to the banister.

"Mr. Parker," Charlotte shouted, worried, and went to see him. Without thinking, she put her hand on his back to comfort him.  
"It's all right, I just have to..." he stuttered and to her concern she noticed that sweat was spreading on his forehead. She touched him there to see if he had a fever. He flinched at the contact. Her hand on her forehead let a strange feeling flow through his body.

"I should get Doctor Fuchs," she began.  
"No! He has more important things to do.... I'm fine."  
"You're not." She said with that vehement voice that allowed no objections.  
"I take you to bed." Charlotte flinched.  
Sidney looked at her for a second and she turned red. It was as if they had thought the same thing at that moment.

"Come on," she took his arm over her shoulder and tried to help him up. It was ridiculous, she thought, she would never be able to carry him up, he was too heavy. But they made it.  
"Which one is your room?"  
"I... we can... the next one will do..." he said breathlessly, and now he was even heavier, he flinched again and sighed deeply. She nodded and led him to the next door, it was her room, but she couldn't take him anywhere else. Two steps and they reached the bed as he fell and dragged her along, everything seemed to slow down, but in reality it went very fast.

Charlotte could only prevent her from falling on him as she pressed her hand against his chest. He hissed in pain. They froze. His hand now held her waist and he looked at her with a look Charlotte couldn't read. She felt the heat spilling from his body onto hers. Her eyes fluttered and she tried to stand upright again.  
"I am so sorry" she moaned.  
"It is... ahhh."

He was in great pain, and she examined his forehead again. Charlotte turned to her water bowl, took one of the new white towels and dipped it into the water. When she pressed it against his forehead, he sighed again. She took another towel and tried to cool the rest of his body. She could only reach his forearms and the skin under his open collar. 

Meanwhile his shirt was bathed in sweat and he trembled. He froze, grabbed her hand and tried to say something, but could only lick his lips. She nodded with concern, ran around the bed and took a glass filled with water and immediately came back to his side. She lifted his head up, he was heavy in her hands, so she leaned him against her shoulder and tried to make him drink.

After he took two or three gulps, he lay down again. Sidneys eyes fluttered. His face showed his very pain. She tugged at his shirt and he opened his eyes in alarm and tried to tease her,  
„I thought...your words... meant nothing like this...“ he smirked, which would be charming, if he didn’t flinch at the same time on her touching his shirt and tugged it carefully out of his breeches.  
„Let me see.“  
Sidney hissed at the fabric stroked against his skin at the wounded side.  
„I am so sorry, I only take a look, oh.“  
„What,..“ their eyes met again she couldn’t look away, even when she wanted to. „do you... not ...ah...like what you... see.“ He stottered.  
„Oh, no.. it’s just blue, everywhere.“ She couldn’t help, her fingers floated over the bruise, but she stopped herself before she could touch him.  
„Yes...ahh.“ His eyes fluttered again.

With feather light touches of her finger tips she caressed his face, without thinking to do so and whispered.  
„Sleep now. It’ll be all right.“  
Slowly he closed his eyes and as she wanted to move away he catched her hand and pressed it against his cheek. Suprised, but expecting him to want to say something, she came a little closer.

"Stay." His voice was barely a whisper. A warm feeling came over her, something tickled behind her eyes, as if she was about to cry. Charlotte stroked his cheek again and with a small smile told him she was not going anywhere.

After he fell asleep, she went downstairs to ask Dr. Fuchs to come with her, he looked at him and she waited in front of the room. She knew what she had seen, it was a broken rib, or maybe two.  
„So, gnädiges Fräulein,“ Dr. Fuchs said as he stepped outside, „Mr. Parker has zwei broken ribs, I go and get bandage. He has to rest a few days. I will tell you later how you could take care of him.“ Dr. Fuchs let the door open and led her inside, „now please hold him warm and if he wakes up you can give him that.“ And he reached in his pocket and handed her a small green bottle.  
„Only ein Schluck.“ Then he went out of the room.

Charlotte was a little shocked, because Mr. Sidney Parker lay in her bed. Naked. Half naked to be clear. But his big broad body, with his bare chest with this fine line of dark hair which disapeared in his breeches, lay in her bed. On top of the blankets.

His head with his brown curls on the pillow she had been lying on hours ago. With a trembling heart and fingers, she stepped closer and tried to look at his face, not at the rest of him. But she couldn’t resist caressing his body with her eyes. His legs, strong forearms and big hands. She couldn’t stop thinking what that long fingers would feel like on her face. How would it feel like, lay down next to him? Her face turned red again and she shooked her head. 

An hour or two later, after Dr. Fuchs had bandaged him and laid him under the blanket with her help, Sidney opened his eyes again. Charlotte was sitting next to him reading Heraclitus. Unaware that he was awake he studied her and saw her again in a different light. Charlotte not only cared for others, she also took care of him. He had seen it in her eyes. His heart fluttered at the thought and his lips tickled, as if they want to smile.

She looked up at him than. At this sight his heart made this funny clenching thing again. Like this afternoon as she said she wasn’t embarressed at all by the sight of him naked. At this, he noticed, that he was naked. Or half naked, to be exact. He reached under the blanket, her blanket and felt a bandage around his middle. 

Opening his mouth to say something, she stood, came around the bed, touched his forehead again. And than she tried again to lift his head up and let him drink.  
Her hair tickled on his skin let him close his eyes again and she was worried.  
„How are you feeling?“ she asked sincerly.

Too embarrassed, since he lay half-naked in her bed, he could hardly look at her.  
"I'm fine', he cleared his throat 'Thank you'.  
Her cheeks blushed and he could not hold back, he raised his hand and touched her beautiful face. Tears tinged in his eyes and he was stunned by the sudden realization. He fell in love with her.

„I am sorry,“ she whispered.  
„For what?“ his voice deep and scratchy.  
„I..I had to call Doctor Fuchs, you were..in so much pain and I saw your... and I thought it is a broken rib and I had to call him.“  
„It’s quite alright.“ He smiled. „How could you....erm... know, I thought.. erm...“ he pointed down on him. „I mean you are...“  
Laughing she told him, „I am a farmers daughter. One of my brothers broke his rips by kicked by a horse.“  
„Oh, yes of course.“  
„So your horse was wild, too?“  
„No, the fight in the Inn the other day.“ She looked alarmed. „To entertain my friends.“  
„Oh.“

After an embaressed moment she broke the silence.

„So, I will get Mary now, she wanted to bring you some food.“  
„Maybe you can“ he began in his normal voice, than it went darker and lower „share it with me.“ It was not a question.  
„Of course.“ Charlotte answered a little to fast and her eyes went a few inches bigger.  
She stepped away from the bed immediately and turned to leave.

„Where can I find some...shirts for you?“ she asked embarressed with shaking voice, her back was turned to him. He told her where to find a shirt and snuggled back in her pillows. Surrounded by her smell he fell back to sleep with a smile on his face.

Later he woke up with Mary at his side and believed that everything with Charlotte had been just a dream. Mary seemed to feel his concern and told him that Charlotte had fallen asleep after their dinner together and that she had sent her to his old room to sleep.  
"You can thank her tomorrow."

The thought of her in his room brought a smile to his lips and he considered moving seriously from the hotel to Trafalgar House.

It would be interesting to sleep every night just a few meters away.


	2. another pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlotte tried to avoid Sidney, till he is hurt again...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2nd chapter for this story, hope you like it.  
I think it's a funny one..

Charlotte tried to avoid being alone with Sidney Parker. The feelings that the thought of it triggered in her, made her almost dizzy.  
He had finally been lying in her bed until the next day he was able to move into his own.  
Although the beds were of course fresh, she had the feeling that his smell still hung on the blankets and pillows and she could hardly sleep the night.  
Too overwhelming was the thought that she shared the bed with him this way.  
She would love to know if it was the same for him.

Sidney had had all his things brought from the hotel to Trafalgar House.  
His brother and Mary were of course happy that he finally lived with them. He didn't know if their house guest thought the same, because he had hardly seen her since he had moved into his own room again. She seemed to avoid being alone with him.  
She only came to visit him accompanied by Mary or the children and then she lowered her eyes immediately when he looked at her.

He really had the feeling that something might develop between them, but now that she was avoiding him, he had probably only imagined the whole thing.  
Maybe she was just someone who took good care of people.  
Without really feeling anything for....him. He should go so as not to make her uncomfortable.

Charlotte was home alone. Or rather, she worked in Tom's study while the Parkers were with Lady Denham for another visit.  
The children were on the beach with the nanny. She sighed that she would have liked to go with them, but Tom's desk was a complete mess.  
He had caused even more chaos when he had been looking for a bill, which she had already picked out for him.

As she leaned back in the chair and stretched her arms over her head to release the tension in her shoulders, she first heard a clanking noise, a loud dull blow and then a not very fine swearing. Immediately she jumped up and ran up the stairs. Sidney was hurt, she knew that instinctively.  
Her heart pounded and her breath stopped in her throat as she stormed into his room without knocking.

Shocked to see him half-naked again, she stopped briefly in the door, but then gather herself and ran to help him. He sat or lay half on the floor in a puddle of water, apparently slipping when he fell down his water bowl. She reached around him to help him up.  
The sudden skin contact made both flinch. Her cold fingers remained frozen on his back, lying under the right shoulder blade and goose bumps spreading on his warm skin. They locked eyes and lost themselves in each other's gaze for a few moments.

"This won't work," he said in a low voice, chasing a shiver down her spine. She couldn't answer, she could only stare at his lips.  
Oh, how desperatly he wont to kiss her in this moment!  
"you can't get me up." His voice a croaking whisper.  
"But I can try." She explained after a while and smiled at him confidently.

Sidney laughed briefly and let her help him up. Not that he couldn't do it alone, but having her so close to him and the sensation of her naked arm on his back gave him so much....feelings that he just didn't want to let that moment pass. He put all his weight on her that she almost stumbled.  
If she had fallen she would have fallen on his bed and he...well he would most probably have fallen on her.  
He pushed even more into her, by this thrilling thought, but whether she suspected it or not, she didn't give in.  
With a grin on her face she turned away after he sat safely on the edge of the bed and took a towel to wipe up the water.

"you don't have to do that." he started and reached for her.  
"otherwise you'll fall again." She said without looking up and wiped the floor dry. 

Only when she was too close to the bed and to him did she look up. With his eyebrows raised and a hint of her head, he lifted his legs so that she could mop up the water under the edge of the bed. When she came up again, she still saw the quite remarkable muscles on his abdomen next to his huge bruise on his side.  
Before he lowered his legs again, he looked her straight in the face with a grin and she knew he had caught her staring.  
With red cheeks and a beating heart she turned away.

"What were you gonna do?" she asked to release the tension, "swim?"  
But when the word left her lips, she closed her eyes already embarrassed, the picture in her head came to the surface. He naked in the floods of the sea.  
He chuckled slightly and denied.  
"I was going to wash."  
"Oh." This imagination wasn't much better.  
"To mingle with the living again." He explained calmly.  
"That's why you took off the bandage?" she asked while picking up the shards of the wash bowl.  
"yes, I don't need it anymore.“  
Charlotte looked up at him for a moment and then shook her head.  
"Stubborn". She mumbled.  
"What did you say?" he asked amusedly. 

Oh, how much he had missed her the last two days. That funny Charlotte. Not embarrassed to answer, almost cheeky little Charlotte.  
Who could also start a fight just because she had to give him her opinion.  
A vibration went through his body and his bad mood from earlier was blown away as she answered.

"Stubborn!"  
"Why, I'm..." he asked, but she interrupted him fighting.  
"The doctor said you must lie down.“  
He laughed louder and his ribs hurt him so much that it turned into a cough.

"You are .... unbelievable!" she continued.  
She suddenly seemed quite angry and he didn't know how to react, as always. Why was she angry with him?  
"you don't take seriously what The doctor says and you put yourself in danger and that's..." she looked at him with angry eyes.  
And instead of the normally cold wave washed a warmth floods over him, which settled in his heart.

"What? she snapped.  
"You care for me," he remarked gently.

Her eyes widened, her cheeks were covered in a light pink and her lips opened as if to say something back.  
She shook her head slightly, almost imperceptibly.  
He nodded. He nodded slowly and clearly. Slightly exaggerated.  
And he smiled. This impudent, enchanting smile, which should really be forbidden.

Charlotte gasped for air, she had the feeling of holding her breath forever.  
This strange feeling in her stomach, these so called butterflies started to fly again and she suddenly felt somehow...sick or something.  
Got up quickly, a little wobbly on her legs she walked fast to the door and disappeared.  
Sidney left out a breathless laugh and fell back on the bed.  
His heart pounded in his chest and he breathed deeply a few times. 

"Who would have thought that?" he asked, yet he knew she was standing next to his door pressed against the wall, he could see a piece of her dress.  
Of course she didn't answer, but he wanted to tease her.

"Miss Heywood cared for Sidney Parker!" No answer from her.  
He looked at the door with hope that she would storm back and scream at him. But she didn't come back and so he kept on talking, just a whisper, maybe that would bring her back.

"Some might say she's in love."


End file.
